The F1 Thread 2011 Season

B Cantona said:
Harsh on Tony Jardine. Plus it was the BBC who originally employed him anyway
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Can you honestly say his opinion was an entertaining one, or worth listening too as either Coulthards or Jordans? I can't remember a single thing he has said or done, apart from appearing in that music video of them all lip syncing to My Chemical Romance ITV released at the last grand prix they did. ITV had some terrible pundits, whereas the BBC have had some brilliant ones. Coulthard, Jordan and Davidson are the best I can remember.
 
gormless said:
Can you honestly say his opinion was an entertaining one, or worth listening too as either Coulthards or Jordans? I can't remember a single thing he has said or done, apart from appearing in that music video of them all lip syncing to My Chemical Romance ITV released at the last grand prix they did. ITV had some terrible pundits, whereas the BBC have had some brilliant ones. Coulthard, Jordan and Davidson are the best I can remember.
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Yes I can, I thought he was good as a co commentator and pundit. I don't want them to be memorable, I want good solid punditry in the moment

Jordan ain't all that, he often spouts a lot of crap. I like him, but Jardine was far more professional in that sense
 
Looks like Di Resta may get a Force India race seat, be good to have another Brit on the grid
 
He has been superb in DTM and deserves the seat, probably something Paffet should have done 2 seasons ago.
 
Ferrari poised to unveil first 2011 Formula 1 car
Fernando Alonso
Alonso will be the first to give the new Ferrari a proper run

Ferrari will become the first team to unveil a 2011 Formula 1 car when they take the wraps off the new F150 at their Maranello base on Friday.

Ferrari hope the car will be good enough make amends for narrowly missing out on the 2010 drivers' world title.

A strategic error at the final race allowed Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel to overhaul Fernando Alonso's lead.

"Our goal is very clear. We are aiming to win both the titles," team principal Stefano Domenicali has said.

"The target is to be better than last year, especially in terms of performance. The car must be competitive from the start and it must be reliable."

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has said it is vital the team make a strong start to the season.

I think this will be a very interesting championship: there are a few question marks regarding the new rules

Luca di Montezemolo
Ferrari president

Last year the team started well with a win in the first race of the season in Bahrain, but they fell off the pace during the first half of the campaign before bouncing back to be the second fastest team behind Red Bull by the summer.

Alonso won five races and entered the final grand prix eight points clear of Vettel, but could finish only seventh after the team's decision to make an early pit stop backfired. He spent the rest of the race stuck behind Renault's Vitaly Petrov while Vettel stormed to victory.

"We must make a good start, both in terms of reliability and, above all, on the performance front," Di Montezemolo said earlier this month.

"Last year, we lost the championship in a first half [of the season] that found us failing to live up to our expectations.

"I think this will be a very interesting championship: there are a few question marks regarding the new rules and therefore we will have to wait and see how competitive are our rivals."

The new car - named to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the reunification of Italy - will be given a brief run at the team's Fiorano test track before being flown to Valencia in Spain for the first pre-season test, which starts on 1 February.
Ferrari nose cone
What features will stand out on the new Ferrari F1 car?

The next teams to unveil their cars are Renault, Sauber and Lotus on 31 January, with world champions Red Bull, Mercedes and Toro Rosso following suit on 1 February.

Alonso will drive for the first two days in Valencia, with team-mate Felipe Massa taking over for the final day.

McLaren are the only top team who will not have a new car at the Valencia test.

They plan to run an updated 2010 car there before taking the new car to the second test in Jerez on 10-13 February in the hope the extra few days' aerodynamic research will give them an advantage.
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Almost time!
 
I love this time of year, so much anticipation as the new cars are unveiled and then days later they are off testing for a month.

Apparently the new McLaren is meant to be a "drastic" change from last season, the Ferrari is a mashup of all the other cars from last season and the Red Bull is anyones guess. Roll on tomorrow for Ferrari's launch.
 
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Not a great deal of difference to last seasons car, bit different nose and flatter sidepods but there is no way this is what the car will look like come Race 1, they are giving nothing away.
 
I love this time of year with the teams releasing their new cars. They look so much better since the changes in the aero regs removed all the stupid little winglets they used to have sticking out all over the place.
 
The Renault seems to have some kind of crazy exhaust array that might be interesting.
 
The Renault does indeed have exhausts that exit from the sidepods :wenger:

JLE0970.jpg

Rumour is that McLaren have a similar type of setup on the MP4-26.
 
Saw something about that on twitter before, apparently it works with the new shape floors and creates downforce. Interesting innovation at any rate.

Had a glimpse at some of the comments knocking around online before, always make me chuckle that people see testing sessions as some kind of indication of which cars are genuinely fastest.
 
It's incredibly annoying to be honest mate, I just want to find out about each cars new bits and you have to wade through pages of people posting test times and stating stuff like "oh my god how fast" or "insert team here is struggling, look at their bad times".
 
:lol: that's true! Do you follow James Allen's blog at all? He is usually a pretty good source of what's going on that you'd want to know about.
 
Yeah one of the first places I check, the autosport forum used to be pretty good to get info too but now it seems to have started to go the way of planetf1. Probably just used James's twitter tool, Scarbs and F1Technical to keep up to date with it all.
 
TUESDAY TIMES:
Vettel (1:13.769),
Hulkenberg (1:13.938),
Paffett (1:14.292),
di Resta (1:14.461)
Alonso (1:14.553),
Kobayashi (1:15.621),
D'Ambrosio (1:16.003),
Di Resta (1:16.337),
Petrov (1:16.351),
Schumacher (1:16.450),
Barrichello (1:17.335),
Alguersuari (1:17.774),
Karthikeyan (1:18.020)
Rosberg (1:19.930).

WEDNESDAY TIMES:
Alonso (1:13.307),
Vettel (1:13.614),
di Resta (1:13.844),
Hamilton (1:14.353),
Kubica (1:14.412),
Karthikeyan (1:14.472),
Rosberg (1:14.645),
Glock (1:15.408),
Barrichello (1:16.023),
Perez (1:16.198),
Maldonado (1:16.266),
Buemi (1:16.359),
Alguersuari (1:16.474),
Webber (1:17.365),
Kovalainen (1:20.649).
 
Few weeks ago we talked about Lewis and his dad this just been put on the BBC site

1307: Hamitlon also confirmed that he hopes to appoint a new manager within the next two weeks.

1300: Some nice quotes have just come into us from Lewis Hamilton. Well, he didn't send them personally but you know what I mean. The 2008 champion has revealed that his relationship with dad Anthony is now far healthier than it was last year. Just two weeks prior to the 2010 season, Lewis axed Anthony as his manager, which resulted in a sad period of silence between the two. But the 26-year-old McLaren driver said: "I just feel things in my life are much better now, and I feel in a much better place, that I'm able to focus even more energy on to winning than I've done in the past. But every year I've always approached it the same. Sometimes your training doesn't go as well, sometimes you're more drained by appearances or certain things you do. Whereas this year things have been a lot clearer and the training has been a lot more productive, and I'm feeling a lot better about the car. Of course, I always want it more. I can never want it enough."
 
One of the many reasons why I can't stand Red Bull, Dr Helmut Marko:

"If a race were held now, we would lap everybody. How our car goes through the corners is amazing. This will be our third strong year in a row."
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It may be true but to come out and state that after 3 days testing and some of the cars not even launched stinks of arrogance. What an absolute helmut.
 
Well that was a different kind of launch by McLaren. The car looks radical though, L shaped sidepods, undercut floor and a double air intake. Images should be online soon I would imagine.

2231_MP4-26_Side.jpg
 
From quates from the Press confrence

Apparently a lot of the McLaren launch model was plastic.

The exhaust solution on today's launch car "WILL NOT BE THE FINAL ONE"

Martin Whitmarsh : "you've haven't seen it all yet" - very telling!
 
The sidepod bits definatly didn't look final as they had no heat shielding inside them which you would expect.
 
Robert Kubica has supposedly suffered serious injuries while racing at a Rally in Italy.

EDIT: Injuries are not life threatening.
 
Just heard about kubica, any more info on the extent of his injuries?
 
Damn, just heard about Kubica, poor guy I hope he makes a full recovery and we see him back soon.
 
When will these drivers realise not to spend their off-season putting their lives and careers at risk? It's like Webber breaking his foot twice in one season by mountain biking.
 
What do you propose they do, spend the off season sat on the couch watching reruns of Lost? These guys are adrenaline junkies and it's no surprise that their hobbies reflect that. When you go on holiday do you plan your time to ensure nothing could get in the way of your job when you get home?
 
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